Why are Chinese so obsessed with Taiwan?

Question

I mean, it's obvious to anyone with half a brain that Taiwan could not have possibly ALWAYS been part of China. There were people there centuries before the first Chinese immigrants and even the Chinese immigrants were seen as deserters by their own country. China only had direct control over the island for about 15 years (by the Manchus who weren't even Chinese) while Japan colonized it for 50 years and it's been defacto independent for the past 60. So why are they so obsessed with gaining a land the has never been under the control of an ethnic Chinese Mainland government. I know it's politics but why specifically Taiwan

Believe me, I've studied lots of Chinese history and have lived in China, Japan, and Taiwan. If you wish to question my knowledge of history please inform me or contradict me with facts and preferably references

Answer 1

It's politics. DS. There are a lot of internal problems in China right now. To maintain its mandate of the government, the leaders in China have to keep the rhetorics up so the ordinary chinese people would know that the government is in control and there would be no need to revolt. Had Taiwan become a lost cause. The control of Tibet will become an issue, and soon every chinese will want to overthrow the government.


XR

p.s. Manchus did not exactly rule Taiwan. It was more of a group of elites from other parts of Mainland China maintain brief period of rule. Manchus were the ruling class of China's last dynasty, Chi'ng.

Answer 2

This is extremely complex but maybe this will help you out a bit:

Han Chinese began settling in the Pescadores in the 1200s, but Taiwan's hostile tribes and its lack of the trade resources valued in that era rendered it unattractive to all but "occasional adventurers or fishermen engaging in barter" until the sixteenth century.

Records from ancient China indicate that Han Chinese might have known of the existence of the main island of Taiwan since the Three Kingdoms period (third century), having assigned offshore islands in the vicinity names like Greater Liuqiu and Lesser Liuqiu ( etymologically, but perhaps not semantically, identical to Ryūkyū in Japanese), though none of these names have been definitively matched to the main island of Taiwan. It has been claimed but not verified that the Ming Dynasty admiral Cheng Ho (Zheng He) visited Taiwan between 1403 and 1424.

In 1949, on losing the Chinese Civil War to the CPC (Communist Party of China), the Kuomintang (KMT) , led by Chiang Kai-shek, retreated from Mainland China and moved the ROC government to Taipei, Taiwan's largest city, while continuing to claim sovereignty over all of China and Greater Mongolia. On the mainland, the Communists established the PRC, claiming to be the sole representative of China including Taiwan and portraying the ROC government on Taiwan as an illegitimate entity

During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC began to develop into a prosperous, industrialized developed country with a strong and dynamic economy, becoming one of the Four Asian Tigers while maintaining the authoritarian, single-party government. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China (while being merely the de-facto government of Taiwan) until the 1970s, when most nations began switching recognition to the PRC

Answer 3

It is politics that divides Communist China and Taiwan. UN including USA recognizes Taiwan as part of China. So China has every legal right to claim Taiwan as part of her territory. If it had not been KMT and USA, Taiwan would have been now called People's Republic of China and Taiwan independce issue would not exist. History is the record of past events and only serves as a reference. What matters is the present and future of Taiwan. Taiwan becoming an independent country is almost impossible. Without USA military and economic support, Taiwan would collapse. Right now USA has the final say on Taiwan's fate.

Answer 4

I'd suggest that Kaoh Ai-Tai read the Taiwanese history instead. Chinese communist history was written by the communists. They do not want to change the constitution of Republic of China to Taiwan which is really funny, because the constitution states all of China including Mongolia belong to KMT.

Answer 5

The China Communist Party thinks Taiwan's democracy movement has a "bad influence" to the mainland Chinese people.

Therefore China wants to invade Taiwan before the "bad influence" spread to the entire China.

Answer 6

i think its a kind of Chinese character. Japan is a different topic though. then, how about Canada & U.S.A? some people generaly just do the same thing.

Answer 7

It is an excuse to expand beyond her borders. International game playing. Anyone with half a brain knows that. Why don't you? We do the same thing.

Answer 8

I strongly suggest you to learn about Chinese history a little bit.

Answer 9

Its so the communist government can make the claim that the KMT and thus the opposition to them taking power in the chinese civil war back in the 1920's to the 1949 did not exist. All so they can make a bogus claim that people really wanted them the whole time, right from the beginning. (one reason- not the important one)

When Chiang left them to slaughter each other and retired to his banana farm to save his own 'face' he forgot to give up his claim to the status as the legal leader of china that the world recognized after WW2, thus the 'Republic of China' and the whole years of bullshit that followed as his followers refused to admit they got whupped because of the traitors and scum that were within his army who defected to the commies. Of course, Chiang, being the member of the Triads that he was, couldnt exactly dig up great loyal followers with groups of thugs that you need to fight misguided farmers who got backstabbed in Land Collectivism by Mao (A rep from a different Triad gang)... Chiang's Triad members sons are now what constitute the party called the KMT. (which also explains why the KMT want to rejoin their 'brothers' back in China so much)

The main reason the current crop of criminals running china want Taiwan is they want geographic protection for their 'trade fleets' and to get their aircraft carriers and subs into the deep ocean past a country that is not friendly is irritating for them. This should concern Joe American more than it does. The more access the criminal dynasty has to your shores, the more of your kids will get crack, guns, and more will be brought into their sex trade as workers, and most importantly, the less influence you have over businesses and trade in Asia. Are you happy having more nuclear subs floating around Los Angeles harbour (uninvited) It likely already happened, but Bushie has his *** bent over while he looks for goat herders with rocket launchers.

The setup is PURE speculation on my part. No evidence exists of the fine pure leaders of modern China being criminals. well other than tapes of Tiennamen in 1989 but of course they arn't personally responsible for THAT.

The leaders of Taiwan are getting milked by pros. They are getting ran one way then the other. The reason its such a mess is there is no leadership here, just a bunch of untrained monkeys following the money from 2 different mafia groups. Thats why it degenerates to fistfights- the dumb shits who get in are so desparate to make it appear their side is actually not controlled by china or usa. Except one side (KMT) is a lot less able to hide its face.

Before people here start voting for wonder boy Ma Ling Jiu they should think about certain members of his party bending over backwards to make sure that criminals are allowed to continue 'representing' the people of Taiwan. Ma, if he wants to really screw over the elements in his party that sicken normal Taiwanese should accept that he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar (with every other pol that lives in Asia) and step down and **** them over and start a new party and kick the KMT's *** back to their sad criminal leaders in China. That I would vote for (if I was Taiwanese) But it is more likely they have some control over family members of his and he wont dare show any real leadership.

Of course DPP people are not exactly wonderful either, with ol' Chen caught with his hand in the cookie jar and all his friends stuck in it with him and will go down next election. Hopefully people will send a strong message to both parties and actually vote for one of the small splinter parties that make rules they stick to and promise to invest something in defense, while keeping promises to veterans. But I doubt it. Most people here don't care and don't know the history of their own place anyways, they just need their Korean soap operas and J-Pop hello kitty fridge magnets to be kept happy.
(remember they were a dictatorship up until 20 years ago- sheep-think dies hard- but makes for great computer industry workers!)

In the inevitable point of Taiwan declaring independance sooner or later (its too important economically now to not do so eventually- nobody respects a place that lets its athletes and leaders get pushed around (literally) and it costs people here real money to always be trashed by china friendly suckups.) Probably missiles will be shot and fireworks will be seen over the strait. Old D class fighter planes will get to test out new chinese ones with unpredictable results. It mostly will be a show for the defense industry contractors to strut the high tech stuff and pretend that it still is relevant in the face of suicide techniques. (and make some more gobs of cash at the cost of Joe Taxpayer) Taiwan will likely give up its claim to Jinmen island (basically its only point is to announce that rocket blasts are being fired) at the end of the fireworks.

People in the US dont know this stuff and it wont be fed to them by a press that follows the size of Oprahs *** more seriously than world affairs. Thats just my opinion on the whole mess. Dont mind me. All I can say is if Taiwan goes, USA's influence over the Pacific area is out with it.

Answer 10

Because most of them are born there. They are Asian and that's how they roll.